04/04/2026
Don't trust everything you see on the internet...
This chart has been blowing up in several rabbit groups. It’s incredibly, wildly incorrect in so many ways, but people are treating it like gospel. I honestly have my suspicions that AI wrote it or at least that the person who made it ran the question through AI to get the incorrect answer as to what is good to pair in rex.
Let’s break this down.
1. “Lynx tort” isn’t a color. Lilac tort is. Lynx is the lilac version of castor (called ‘chestnut’ in non-rex fur breeds). But they’re very, VERY different colors. By default, Lynx can never be tort.
2. Lynx to basically anything else can risk wrong undercolor. Every other of the four main agouti colors (castor, opal, amber) has colored undercolor. Lynx are to have white undercolor. It takes special modifiers to retain white undercolor in Lynx. Those modifiers can also mess up the undercolor in opals especially. So any of the pairings that say it’s good or OK to breed lynx to castor, opal, or amber really should be in the “maybe” category.
3. Why is Opal x Lynx a “good match” but Lynx x Opal is only an “OK match”? That makes no sense at all.
4. Any self color (black, blue, chocolate, lilac) is just as good to breed to one another as any other self color. I could argue that breeding black to black, blue to blue, chocolate to chocolate, and lilac to lilac is the best possible pair because there can be some shade differences that matter between one color to the next. But black x blue is no better than black x chocolate or black x lilac. Same for the other colors. Black otter x blue otter isn’t any better than black otter x chocolate otter. Arguably, black otter x chocolate otter is a better pair than black otter x black, just because you can’t know for certain what modifiers (Rufus, ticking evenness and spread, etc.) the black has that might not make quite as nicely colored otter offspring.
5. Sable is made using copy or shaded and the other copy is either pointed white (called “Himalayan” in Rex) or Ruby eyed white (REW). The vast majority of sable programs in any breed are going to utilize seals and pointed whites. I use both in my sable silver marten program. Even if someone doesn’t use them, sable to sable will ALWAYS result in some offspring that are seal and some that are either pointed white or REW. Anyway, this point is a bit nit picky since eh you could argue sable x sable is best and seal is the next best. Mainly because Himalayan could be hiding white spots or scattered white hairs.
6. Californian is the exact same color as black Himalayan. Rex used to call the color “Californian”. I bred sable, seal, and Californian red as my primary colors. It’s now called “Himalayan”. Anyone actually knowledgeable about the breed should know that. AI, on the other hand, is likely to mix this up based on old info. Also, since it’s the same color as Himalayan, the recommended pair should be the same. It should be in the “OK Match” column since Sable x Himalayan is said to be an “OK Match”.
Same with Seal x Himalayan. Seal and Sable should be equally good matches. If anything, REW should be in the “Maybe” category where Seal is. REW can hide any genetics from any color that’s not on the C Locus. A proper Himalayan MUST be self, full extension, not broken, and not Vienna. Agouti, tan pattern, steel, harlequin, non-extension, broken, and Vienna can all hide under REW. Breeding them to Himalayan could mess up the Himalayan color. Breeding to Seal is a pretty darn safe pairing that’ll result in 100% sable colors (note that if the seal and Himalayan both carry recessives like dilute or non-extension, you can still get unshowable colors, but that’s true of almost any color pairing other than REW x REW).
7. Tricolor should never be bred to ANY tort color if showable colors are the goal (unless you’re very knowledgeable in genetics, have a good plan to test breed it back out, and for some reason need it specifically to introduce some other trait which is more than likely much easier and better to get from another color instead). That’s a very quick ride to torted tri, which is a disqualification. Torted tri comes from the combination of self based tri and carrying non-extension. Tort is genetically self and is a non-extension color. Both of those are fully recessive, so tort will always donate one copy of self and one copy of non-extension. 2/3 of the way to torted tri just from the tort being used. If the tri is self based or carries self, you’ll get torted tri that generation. Even if not, you’ve set yourself up for future disqualification. (Tan pattern based tris can also show tort shading, but it tends to not be as obvious.) Red and fawn aren’t the best matches either, because they are non-extension. However, as they’re agouti, it’s less of a risk than tort. If the tri being used is agouti and the red/fawn is pure for agouti, it’s pretty safe both for that generation and beyond.
Also, red and fawn are equally useful for ANY kind of tri, not just for b/o tri and b/f tri, respectively. It makes no sense that red is only good for b/o tri and fawn is only good for b/f tri.
8. Speaking of fawn, it is NOT showable as Lynx. While some judges may miss it, not having bands in the coat is a disqualification for Lynx. An observant, knowledgeable judge will disqualify a fawn entered as a Lynx. “Lynx tort”, even assuming they mean “lilac tort” would be disqualified both for not having bands and for not having agouti pattern. Neither color is showable as Lynx.
9. Back to the main 4 agouti colors and their relation to red/fawn. Red can be black-based or chocolate-based. As such, red could be just as good for amber as for castor, but it’s not listed as such on this chart.
10. Another small thing, but still not quite correct. Genetically Charlie rabbits can still have enough color to show sometimes. Genetically regular Broken rabbits can have too little color to show sometimes.
Please, don’t use or trust AI for genetics and color information. If you’re not truly well-learned in genetics and colors, don’t put out genetics and color guides. A LOT of people are being misled by this chart right now.
Of course, if you’re not breeding for show, the only color pair that actually matters beyond your personal goals is broken x broken. So I have to assume this color chart was meant to be for showable colors and for best color quality.
